There is a difference between throwing a spit ball/corking bats and performance en chancing drugs. Gaylord Perry is in the Hall of Fame, essentially for being able to get away with thing, by his account, an account which may or not be exaggeration. Some people would consider it cheating if you took first on a pitch you knew didn't hit you when the umpire said it did. There are different levels of clean cheating as well. A Russian fencer once rigged up a device to show he was scoring touches on the electronic scoring device, but unless baseball umpiring went electronic, that's not the sort of thing you would have to worry about in baseball. Performance-en chancing drugs are on a completely different level.

There is even a difference between stimulants and anabolic steroids, Cheating really isn't the right category for anabolic steroids, although I'm not defending either. If you are competing against people taking illegal stimulants, there are measures you can take including legal stimulants, to perform at the same level. Anabolic steroids establish a sort of arms race. Staying clean while competing in that atmosphere is more difficult for many than competing in an atmosphere of illegal stimulants.

The answer to your question turns out to be vague, not unlike Potter Stewart's definition of pornography. Labeling steroid users simply as cheaters, though, ends up doing a disservice to other cheaters. Use of the word was probably ill-advised.